(!.('■>«/■<' 




SERMON 



PREACHED TO THE CONGREGATION 



AT THE 



€mx $\ml Cfnirrjj, Mnhn 31, 1802, 



THE SABBATH AFTER THE INTERMENT Of 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER. 



BY NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D.D. 

PASTOE OF ESSEX STREET CHURCH, BOSTON. 



^xintfb bs t^e goung Mtn of U)t Congrrgatioit, for tfjfir jpribale WiSt. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF GEO. C. RAND, CORNHILL. 

1852 



r) 



^. . '^ '^ 



SERMON 



PREACHED TO THE CONGREGATION 



AT THB 



€uu Itreet Cjiiurjj, (!l)rtntier 31, 1852, 



THE SABBATH AFTiiR IHJi INTJiRMliNT OF 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER 



BY NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D.D. 

PASTOR OF ESSEX STREET CHURCH, BOSTON. 



Iprintrt 6fl tf)c goung iKfn of tlje Congrfflation, for t^rir yrifaatc ®ar. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF GEO. C. RAND, CORNHILL. 

1862. 






tiitcred nccordiiiK to Act of Congriw. in tlic year 1862, 

By THOMAS J. LKE ami KHANCIS F. EMKKY, 

I II iir <. Icrk'e Office of the Dii-trict Court of tlic District of MajseachubetU. 

Bo«. AttMo 






CORRESPOXDENCE 



Boston, JVovember 2, 1852. 
Reverenb and Dear Sir: — 

At a meeting of the Young Men of the Essex Street Congregational Society, 
held in the Vestry on Monday evening, the first instant, the undersigned were 
appointed a committee to request of you, for publication, a copy of the discourse 
delivered by you, on Sabbath morning last, on the decease of the Hon. 
Daniel Webster. 

In performing this pleasant duty, allow us to express individually our earnest 
desire, that you will be jjleased to comply with the urgent request of your 
young parishioners. 

It is our sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father, that you may be spared yet 
many years to your flock; and we assure you, that we shall nt all times delight 
to assist and cheer you in your labors. 

Very truly and respectfully, 

THOMAS J. LEE, 1 

MILAN HULBERT, j 

EDWARD P. DUTTON, \ Committee. 

FRANCIS F. EMERY, | 

W. R. BROUGHTON, J 
To Rf.v. N. Adams, D.D. 



To Messrs. Thojias J. Lee, 
Milan Hulbert, 
En ward p. Duttox, 
Francis F. Emery, 
Wm. R. Broughton, 

Conunittee of the Young Men of the Essex Street Society. 

My Dear Friends : — 

In complying with joiir renewed request, and with solicitations from 
other members of our Society, to furnish a copy of my last Sabbatli morning's 
Sermon for the press, I forego my personal preferences, and commit the 
manuscript to j-our disposal, for the private use of yourselves and friends. 

Very affectionatelj'. 

Your Pastor and frien<l, 

N. ADAMS. 
Boston, Xov. C, 1852. 



! 



\ 



SERMON. 



I. SAMUEL, XXV. 1. 

AND SAMUEL DIED : AND ALL THE ISRAELITES WERE GATHERED TOGETHER, 
AND LAMENTED HIM, AND BURIED HIM IN HIS HOUSE AT RAMAH. 

The past week has been to this community a 
week of unparalleled interest. Since the death of 
Washington, the decease of no man has produced 
such an effect upon the hearts of the American 
people as that which is now the subject of public 
lamentation. The general grief is unafiected. Words 
and signs of sorrow do not, and cannot, increase it, 
but only serve to give it utterance. There is a depth 
of love in this grief which few men (indeed, a child 
might write them,) have ever occasioned. There is 
secret weeping, and sadness of heart, and feelings 
which can never be expressed. 

The origin and early history of this great man; 
the first steps of his professional career, marked with 
such success and honors; his statesmanship; his 
great national services ; his power as an orator ; the 
unsurpassed excellence of his writings ; his influence 
as a public teacher; the wonderful combination, in his 
thoughts, of the explanatory and illustrative with 



tlie sublime and elevating, ^ratifying the common 
apprehension with the consciousness of understanding 
him, and yet making us respect him in his 
unattainable power of statement and argument ; 
his failure to receive the nominal reward of our 
republican gratitude ; his death, succeeding rapidly 
the recent and final decision that he never should 
be the Chief Magistrate of the nation ; and the 
sublime and touching incidents of his last hours, 
combine to make this man the subject of an interest 
which falls short of idolatry by a less degree than 
that awakened by the decease of any excepting 
]Moses, and Samuel, and the fcAV, since their day, in 
the history of the old nation?!, and the vory few of 
this young republic. 

Were the language of mere eulogy re(iuired or 
expected, the pulpit would not be the place, nor the 
Sabbath the time, nor ministers of the Gospel the 
men for sucli service. This great man is above all 
praise in all that made him truly great. There are 
some, but they are few, that can approach 'to describe 
or measure that greatness, who <io not, thereby, 
place tliem selves in the position of men at the 
bottom of pictured pyramids or giant trees. 

But reflections whicli the most common mind will 
suggest in connection with a great event, such as 
words cannot adequately express, not unfrequently 
convey instruction, and satisfy the wish tliat labors 
to feel and speak upon the subject justly. By this 
thought, I am encouraged to contribute a humble 
offering, not to the memory of our distinguished 
friend, but, as becomes me better, to your reflections, 
in making a profitable use of our bereavement. 



I. We have lost a great public benefactor. 

One of the distinguislied blessings which the God 
of nations bestows upon a people in the persons 
of great and useful men, is taken away. 

A truly great lawyer at the bar is an eminent 
blessing. The rights of persons and property find 
in him one of those great safeguards which free 
governments provide for us, — not in the arbitrary 
judgment, right or wrong, of a Sovereign, nor of 
the Judiciary, but in reason, employed to elicit truth 
and commend the cause on trial to the enlightened 
judgment of the community, whose sober, settled 
opinion is of the first importance in free states. A 
truly great and just_ lawyer, rising above artifice, 
and resting his cause on truth, is one whom the 
people* of such countries as ours should honor and 
cherish as among the best defences of those private 
interests which make up the sum of public safety 
and happiiaess. Our departed friend was such a 
man. Whether defending chartered rights in behalf 
'of a literary corporation ; or helping one of our 
towns to convict and punish the assassin ; or merchants 
to recover the insurance on their property; or the 
underwriters to defend themselves against fraud, he 
has rendered invaluable services to his generation. 

He has finished his professional career, and his 
brethren,- in doing homage to his talents and worth 
* as a member of the bar, while they deepen our 
sorrow at the loss of him, comfort us, by the 
assurance which we have in them, that his example 
and influence not only survive, but will not be 
wholly without compeers. 



8 

Our nation has not lost a greater benefactor since 
the death of its founders. He has preser^•ed us, 
under God, from foreii^ni wars ; and when we say this, 
we say more than imagination can represent. There 
have been times during his various administration 
of affairs when we have all felt as when we stand 
upon the deck of a powerful ship, with our eye upon 
the man at the wlieel, and see how, by a skilful 
motion, he makes the ship pass more easily over a 
swelling billow, and go witli safety over sunken 
rocks where the dimphng waters reveal, to the 
experienced eye, the extremest peril. 

This man has done as much, by his various 

influence, for this union of great States, as any other 

since that " Farewell Address " was written, which he 

had so faithfully learned, and which he has taught us 

to consider. "We look upon him, in this respect, as an 

instrument in the hands of God, who has not ceased, 

and, we trust, Avill not cease, to use him for this great 

purpose, to keep us as a niltion from dismembennent. 

You will do me the justice to believe that I do not 

speak from party feeling, as I never lAve done here, 

when I express the belief that posterity, and not a 

very distant generation, will adjudge him to have 

been disinterested and patriotic in his compromise 

measures with relation to Slavery in the United States. 

Posterity will not look at those acts of his, as we do, 

in near connection with an elevation to the Chief 

iNlagistracy, but will have the advantage of distance 

in looking at other acts of his life to interpret his 

feelings and motives here. A man who spoke as he 

did to South Carolina and the South in his second 

speech in the Senate of the United States on 



9 



Mr. Foot's resolutions, could not afterward have 
cringed to cliafFer with her for her votes, falsifying 
the whole spirit and many of the principles of that 
speech, without doing a greater degree of violence, I 
will not say to his nature, but. to human nature, than 
impartial judges will hereafter believe to have been 
possible. Nor will posterity, I venture to assert, 
suffer him long to lie under the imputation of seeking 
to aid and abet the system of slavery by any thing 
which he did in connection with the Fugitive Slave 
Law, whatever effect that law may have to perpetuate 
slavery. I do not seek to express an opinion here 
with regard to the exciting and controverted topics 
of the day, but to utter the strong convictions of my 
own mind with regard to the uprightness of this 
lamented public servant, in his connection with them. 
Were I speaking, as I think I am not, to any who 
are politically his enemies on account of his influence 
m the re-enactment of a former statute relating to 
domestic slavery, I would pray them, by the 
conciliating influences of his death, to consider this: 
Whether Mr. Webster, in dealing with this great 
moral and political evil, may not have regarded 
himself in some such position as that of Franklin 
when he provided the lightning conductors. The 
comparison does not admit of an extended application, 
and I do not wish to extend it, but merely to suggest 
that Mr. Webster's avowed principles and political 
services warrant the belief that, seeing the North and 
the South marshalling their angry forces in the 
heavens over our heads, he sought to apply a means 
of protection and safety to the whole land, to save 
the country from events by which not only freemen, 



10 

but slaves themselves, would be involved in calamities 
more direful, in his view, even than slavery. In these 
measures, I must express my persuasion, he acted 
from a disinterested love to his whole country, and 
did tliat Avhich he considered essential to the highest 
good, wliatcvcr the result may be. I would not 
exaggerate his influence in keeping us from disunion, 
but, the sun that went down on the day of his funeral 
left this nation, still, the United States of America, 
and did not veil himself from the sight of " broken 
and dishonored fragments of a once glorious union ; 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; a land 
rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal 
blood." * AVhen our advocate for union uttered 
these words in the Senate of the United States, he 
did not knoAv that God would make him, as we 
believe He has done, one of the principal instruments 
to fulfil, thus far, liis o\\ii great wish, to answer his 
mighty prayer. May the benign influence of supreme 
love to God in Christ soon enable us to approach every 
subject of national difficuUy with the spirit of peace 
and good will. And now, as we sail away together 
in our national bark from the sea-girt tomb of our 
pilot, O that we might all agree. North, South, East, 
and West, to throw into the waves, as a sacrifice, 
our unkind feelings, our bitter words, on the subject 
of American Slavery. Let the land have a Sabbath 
mth regard to this subject, and let that Sabbath be 
the long, long days of our mourning for this great 
patriot, our country's friend.f 

* Second Speecli on Mr. Foot's Resolution, at the close, 
t In confirmation of the conviction expressed in the foregoing paragraph, I 
will state the following anecdote : A clergyman, well known to my hearers. 



11 



II. We cannot but notice the hand of God in 
appointing this death just at the eve of the 
Presidential election. 

After all, it is of very little consequence, in one 
point of view, who fill the thrones and seats of power 
in this world. The blessed and only Potentate has 
designs with regard to this nation, which we and the 
men of our choice will fulfil, in perfect ignorance, 
however, at the time, of the use which is made of us. 
The result of this next Presidential election will be 
hailed as the triumph of a party ; but they who look 
upon it from the world of light, where every thing is 
judged of in connection with God's great plan in 
human afi'airs, will see in it a step toward some 
important purpose in the mind of God, with whom 
the tumult of the people, in their elections and 
political victories, is like the measured tramp of a host 
obeying the word of command in a well appointed 
evolution. The past forbids any thing but hope and 
confidence in God with regard to our coming history ; 
but we are in the hands of One to whom a nation is 
an individual thing, to be preserved or broken, 
prospered or aftiicted, in his merciful providence or 
righteous judgment. Foreign wars may await us; 
entanglement with the concerns of other nations, 
either to our own hurt, if not perdition, or, to spread 



says, that haying occasion not long since to meet Mr. Webster on some 
official business, the conversation turned upon the compromise measm'es, and Mr. 
Webster's connection with them. Mr. Webster said, " It seemed to me at the 
time, that the country demanded the sacrifice of a human victim, and I saw 
no reason why the victim should not be myself." The clergyman says that 
Mr. W.'s manner evinced such sincerity and deep patriotic disinterestedness, 
that he was moved to tears, which do not cease to start at every recollection 
of the interview. 



12 

the principles of political freedom, and thus advance 
the kingdom of Christ. iMeasures may be taken 
to give the Roman Catholic influence a greater 
predominance here, or to fortify our institutions against 
it. Industry and the useful arts, inventions and 
discoveries, may be greatly stimulated or palsied; good 
morals and religion may receive countenance ; the 
righteous may flourish in the abundance of peace, or 
the Avicked may walk on every side. There is no such 
thing as pause or rest in our destiny for years to come. 
For good or ill, we shall move round the orbit where 
the great Builders liand has launched us, either 
avoiding, by the help of that same hand, those 
bodies which cross our track, or receiving damage. 
AVhatever happens to us, our rulers, our parties, our 
individual votes will have produced it, instrumentally; 
and will fulfil the decrees of the great God. AVe 
cannot doubt that the removal of our distinguished 
fellow citizen, just at this time, will have an important 
influence, but we know not how, upon the event of 
the coming election. lie who knows times and 
seasons, (and the number of our months is with Ilim,) 
has ordered this decease in such a manner that its 
powerful effect is felt in season to influence the 
feelings, and the opinions, and the votes of so many, 
as will, perhaps, decide our political destiny for another 
presidential term. AVe cannot fail to notice and to 
feel the power of this coincidence. This great man 
dies and goes to his long home. A Sabbath ensues, 
and the nation in her temples is weeping and praying 
over this great decease. The week days resume their 
round, and twenty-three millions of people choose 
their rulers, and change their national administration. 



13 

It is clone in a day, but the end is with God. The 
hand of God is in this thing, preparing the way for 
such a result as He shall choose. It w^as throug-h 
the agency of another Daniel, in former days, that 
a heathen king was compelled to utter these words, 
which may instruct us, and appropriately dwell upon 
our hearts and upon our lips : — • " And at the end of 
the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes 
unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto 
me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and 
honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from, 
generation to generation ; and all the inhabitants 
of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth 
according to his will in the army of heaven, and 
among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can 
stay his hand, or say unto him. What doest thou ? " 
Suppose that Mr. Webster had received the 
nomination for the presidency by the late Baltimore 
Convention, as many of us desired and expected. 
What a day the coming second of November would 
have been to one of the great political parties 
throughout the land. What would they have done? 
What could they have done? Distracted with 
disappointment and sorrow, with no time for concerted 
action, their hearts would have melted, their knees 
would have smitten together, their faces would have 
gathered blackness. I speak to you who are members 
of that party, not as a politician, but as a believer 
in God's providence, and ask you to see the hand, 
of God in your affairs. Could the Almighty have 
spoken to you with an audible voice at Baltimore, 
disclosing his purposes, He might have said to you 



14 

respecting this candidate : " Seeing his days are 
determined, the number of his months is with me, 
I have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass, 
turn from him that he may rest, till he shall 
accomplish as an hireling his day." When you or 
your representatives were at Baltimore, God was 
there, and there were many devices in men's hearts ; 
" but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." 

The great fault of our age is, low views of God. 
The Almii;hty has now reached down his hand ; 
He is almost as impressively present with us as he 
was when he stood on the top of Nebo, and called 
I^Ioses thither to die, and Israel saw the form of 
their leader disai)pear into that presence which 
no man can see and live. Is this great departure, 
one week preceding an election, an accident? "Verily 
there is a God that ruh'th in the earth ! " " Not a 
sparrow falleth to the ground without Ilim." This 
trreat man, in the time and manner of his fall, was, 
in the purposes of God, of more value than many 
sparrows. May the fear of this ever present God 
fall on you, and his exceUeucy make you afraid. 

III. The last days and hours of this 

DISTINGUISHED MAN ARE EMINENTLY INSTRUCTIVE. 

Jesus Christ and his religion disdain no man's 
love and advocacy, while they are beholden to no 
man for his acceptance of them. We should not 
rest our confidence in the Bible upon the opinions 
and feelings of men ; still, we are confirmed in our 
faith when wise and great men are of our opinion. 
Irreligion, sceptical opinions with regard to the 
Scriptures, transcendental views of Christ and the 



15 

Apostles, are rebuked by the testimony of this 
pre-eminent human intellect. Modern unbelief had, 
in its own conceit, fixed a great stone at the door 
where it had buried our Saviour and his religion. 
God has raised up a man of your own city and 
people, whose countenance is, to you, like lightning, 
and he has rolled away that stone and sat upon it. 
As defenders of the credibility of the christian faith, 
we feel that henceforth our labors with some of our 
fellow men are greatly lessened. Spiritual religion 
cannot, indeed, be attested by any who are not 
themselves spiritually enlightened by the Holy Spirit ; 
but the evidences of Christianity can be appreciated 
by the human understanding, and have been 
maintained by the wisest and greatest of men in 
every age, whom, however, unbelievers regard only 
as professional writers, and employed advocates of 
religion. Now, God has raised up among us one 
to whose calling and to whose death-bed it did not 
belong, professionally, to assert the truth of the 
christian religion. He died in the firm belief that 
the Holy Scriptures are the word of God, and that 
there is salvation only through Jesus Christ. 

It is creditable to the state of the public conscience 
on the subject of religion, that, during the two or 
three days when it was known that Mr. AVebster 
must die, the great concern seemed to be, to know 
something with respect to his religious preparation 
for death. Every thing which was reported on this 
point was read and remarked upon with no common 
interest. All wished and prayed that this beloved 
man might die the death of the righteous, and his last 
end be like his. And there is a general gratification 



\6 

in the community at the serious feelings and religious 
expressions which gave character to his last hours. 
It is, then, an established truth among us, never more 
fully received or durably impressed upon the minds 
of all than now, that religion alone can prepare a 
man to meet his God and his judge. In many 
companies of a confidential nature, you have no 
doubt heard the (piestion considered with the deepest 
kindness and tenderness, ]SIay we not hope that Mr. 
Webster is a true Christian I His peculiar exposures 
to temptation, on tlie dangerous summit which he 
occupied before tlie country, and in the scenes of 
exciting interest through wliich, as a statesman and 
a politician, he was called to pass, and from tlie 
unmeasured aihniration with which he was surrounded, 
nuist have re(iuired more than unaided mortal strength 
to pass through them without delinciuency. How 
far lie succeeded, or whether any of us, in his 
circumstances, would have needed more charity in 
the judgment of others concerning us, than he, it 
is not useful or suitable to inquire. Is there any 
thing in his writings, from first to last, that betrays 
u corrupt mind, a Aicious imagmation, or a disposition 
to trifle with serious things'? 

He was in the habit of praying with his family, 
in domg which, surely no worldly motive could 
play its part. Great interest has been expressed to 
know how he spent the hours of the Sabbath, as 
indicating whether he had that spiritual mind wliich 
loves the day, because it loves the God who made 
it, and the things which it is set to promote. We 
all know, without being told, that, like us, he was a 
sinner before God, and could not be saved for being 



17 



a great man, or an eloquent man, or a useful man ; 
but, like Paul, must have been " found in Christ, not 
having his own righteousness, but the righteousness 
which is of God through faith." The same essential 
truths were as appropriate at his dying bed as they 
will be at yours ; it was needful for him, as for you, 
to repent and believe in Christ, "in whom we have 
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of 
sins ; " and when his spirit stood before his God, he 
left behind him, as he left his mortal part, every thing 
which could constitute a claim upon the divine favor, 
and only for his heartfelt trust in the Saviour of the 
world, could he, with the rest of the sinful race, be 
justified and saved. The throng of great and just 
men made perfect who were moved at his coming, 
looked at him, not as some of them saw him on 
Plymouth Rock, and Bunker Hill, in the Senate 
chamber, and in the Court room, but, as a fallen son 
of Adam, who, by his sins, had, hke other men, lost 
heaven; and the question there, and the only question, 
was, Has he accepted Jesus Christ as He was offered 
to him in the Gospel ? The gate was no more strait, 
nor the way more narrow, for him, to enter into life, nor 
was it a jot or tittle easier, or in any respect otherwise, 
than it is for you. For there is salvation in Christ 
for all, and not " in any other ; for there is none 
other name under heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved." 

He loved the christian religion. He loved and 
cherished the christian ministry; and the clergy 
throughout the christian world are indebted to him 
for his feelings and expressions with regard to them. 
They, in their turn, have loved and revered him in 



IS 



a measure not excecdctl l»v their feoliiicjs toward 
any coteniiiorary. 

We all know that death enshrines every one who, 
by any exercise of hope, we can believe is saved ; that 
great faults, and even known sins and bad liabits, are 
regarded as atoned for by dying ; the piteous looks and 
tones on the death bed being inconsistent, in our minds, 
with any thing but compassion and mercy. There is 
always much false theology lurking in affectionate or 
complaisant sentiments at such a time as this, and we 
must be careful not to contradict established truths, 
and our avowal of them, when we are under the 
influence of popular enthusiasm. If we declare our 
belief that a soul is saved, justice and kindness to 
ourselves and others demand that we rest our belief on 
scriptural reasons. "We must not be deceived, nor 
deceive others, with regard to the conditions of pardon 
and salvation. There is not one Gospel for the living, 
and another for the dying. The warnings and 
threatenings, the promises and consolations, which 
you read in the Bible and hear from the pulpit in 
your health and strength, are as true, they are the 
same, wlien you arc dying, as ever. AVe say of our 
beloved friend that which you will say of each other, 
and of each of us, ministers of the Gospel : If he 
repented of his sins, and believed on the Saviour of 
the world, we, if we do the same, shall meet him in 
heaven. If you feel sure that he is safe, prepare to 
die with christian faith and hope ; if you still inquire 
for more information, containing evidence to satisfy 
you that he died a regenerated man, see that you 
yourself experience and do those things which you 
deem satisfactory evidence of acceptance with God. 



19 

What a subject death found, when it approached 
hhn. How hard a task to conquer his life. Such a 
vitalized death, we never knew. He speaks, in the 
very act of dissolution, and says, " I still live." Could 
the king of terrors have relented and trailed again his 
dart, this was the man for him to spare. Inexorable 
sentence ! " passed upon all men, for that all have 
sinned." Who can claim or expect exemption now"? 
Our Presidents, our Senators, our Counsellors, our 
Judges, our Ministers of the Gospel, the chief 
Captains, and the Kings of the earth, who slew all 
these ^ If sin destroys the body, if it defiles every 
thing honorable and beautiful in the outward man by 
death, what must its ravages be in the soul, which is 
its proper seat ! 

And now he has "lain still, and is quiet, and sleeps, 
and is at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth, 
which built desolate places for themselves." Who will 
be the President of the United States for the next four 
years, is a question whose interest with him has been 
absorbed, and, for the time, forgotten, in a question 
personal to himself, which has now been settled for 
eternity. He once made a public profession of his faith 
in Christ, before a christian Church in a New England 
village. That day and that transaction now seem 
more important to him, than this bauble, — the 
Presidential chair. Could he return, I cannot resist 
the conviction, he would think more of the Church of 
Christ, of its devotional privileges and opportunities, 
and the spread of the Gospel of Christ in the earth ; 
as no doubt all in heaven would, could they enjoy the 
privilege, which we still have, of living and of serving 
Christ in a world like this. 



'20 

One thing even lie mic^ht find it hard to do ; and 
that is, to improve the moral tone, and the intellectual 
power and beauty, of his writings. lie has left the 
world a rich legacy in his works, and if some one will 
add to them a volume of the clociuent and inii)ressive 
words which his death has occasioned, and shall 
occasion, at the bar and in the assemblies of the 
nation, the measure of his ability to instruct the world 
will be full. 

His death makes us all love one another. It makes 
it easy for these hard, cold hearts of ours, which the 
world rifies of their affections, it makes it easy for 
them to show feeling and not be ashamed. We love 
those who, by their touching emblems of sorrow in 
their windows and places of business, have helped our 
weeping. Our country, if our sins do not prevent, 
\\ ill be more one country than before ; our Presidents 
will strive to rule over the whole nation, and not serve 
a party ; our public men will remember that they nuist 
die, and live more like dying men. Tliey called him, 
in the language of the great poet of nature, " the 
foremost man of all the world." He was the reannost 
of an age in our history, which nothing but hope and 
cheerful trust in God prevents us from calling our 
irolden age. The men who have conducted the 
country hitherto on her high career, are now all gone. 
Young men, see before you the path to honorable 
distinction and usefulness, and to the gratitude of a 
great nation, at least at your decease, and to the 
attainment of a name which is more precious than 
rubies. Remember the testimony which this man has 
given you, that "the fear of the Lord is the begin- 
nina- of wisdom." 



21 



In the borrowed language of this great orator, in 
Fanueil Hall, just after the receipt of some disastrous 
tidings in an election, we say, as we now return from 
burying him in his house in Ramah, " All is not lost." 
Even he is not lost to us. His influence is ten-fold 
greater than ever. Who made this man, and gave him 
to this nation ? Who is the Prince of the kin^s of 
the earth 1 HE lays his right hand upon our nation, 
and says, " Fear not, I am the first and the last ; I am 
he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for 
evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death." 
This past week, in reading the works of this great 
man, and the beautiful and touching anecdotes of his 
early life, and the skilful and pathetic portraitures of 
his character, and seeing the tokens of the deepest 
universal sorrow which our land has felt for, at least, 
one generation, and in thinking of him now, in the 
house appointed for all living, I have felt the need of 
some man, some fellow man, whom I can love and not 
lose, as we have lost him. I " have found Him of 
whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, 
Jesus of Nazareth," " the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever." "And his name shall be called," — and 
never more appropriately than now, — " Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace." All that was great, beautiful, 
good, in this departed friend, was derived from Jesus 
Christ, by whom all things were created, whether they 
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. 
He Himself " is fairer than the children of men." 

In the October sunlight of a declining day, not long 
since, I saw the trees of the wood, beautiful in the 
melancholy change of their leaves, which a rising 



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wind was showering to the ground. Tlie rays of the 
sun fell upon a tall pine of fresh and brilliant green ; 
and wonderiuG^ at it for a moment, as out of season, 
I was reminded that the evergreens put forth fresh 
spires in autumn, when the leaves of other trees fall. 
As the evergreen never seems so beautiful and striking 
as when the other trees are stripi)ed of their foliage, so 
when friends and great and useful men die, there is 
One, bom for adversity, who makes even decay and 
desolation cheediil, in being, himself, tlie pledge of 
immortal it v, the Resurrection and the Life. 

Fellow citizens, fellow sinners, fellow travellers to 
eteniity, love " Immanuel, (jlod with us," your Saviour 
and friend, with the love and zeal with which you 
regard your great earthly brother and friend, and 
your interests for eternity are safe. Open the New 
Testament, read any chapter in the life of Christ, and 
you will lind far more to love and praise, than in all 
the words and deeds of men. "When our fellow coun- 
tr}'men shall love and worship Christ, according to the 
injunctions of the second Psalm, and, in consequence, 
shall be consistent members of christian Churches, in 
such numbers as to create a public religious sentiment, 
then the country will be safe. Then we can discuss 
and settle political and moral questions without 
danger or serious difficulty. Supreme love to Jesus 
Christ is not a mere frame of mind for private 
devotion, an experience pertinent only to the secret 
life of a believer ; it must pervade the public mind, it 
must influence the spirit and principles of the rulers 
and of the citizens. Let no one say, " This is too much 
to expect." For is not this the religion foretold by 
Prophets as destined to be universal ? At the name of 



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Jesus is not every knee to bow, and every tongue to 
confess him to be Lord ? Jesus Christ, ux3on whose 
head are many crowns, and at whose feet our 
Webster now sees that there is no crown, in earth 
or in heaven, that should not be laid, claims your 
supreme love. While you appreciate the excellence, 
and almost worship the memory, of one, who, after 
all, is only a nobler worm than you, remember 
that there is One who made you, and died for you, 
and will be your final Judge, who says, " He that 
loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter 
more than me, is not worthy of me." This claim is 
either presumption, or, it implies infinite obligations 
on our part. This week has proved that men can love 
intensely. It has, in the same connection, witnessed an 
enforcement of those words ; " Cease ye from man 
whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherewith is he 
to be accounted of] " The Saviour of the world claims 
your highest and best affections. We will not be 
ashamed of Him, nor of his words, in the midst of 
this generation. We shall one day see Him coming 
in his glory, and all his holy angels with Him ; the 
small and great will be at his bar ; He will " separate 
them one from another ; " his awards will have 
reference to their feelings and conduct toward Him. 
Eemember, then, his commandment, and his gracious 
words : " If any man serve me, let him follow me ; 

AND where I AM, THERE SHALL ALSO MY SERVANT BE ; 
IF ANY MAN SERVE ME, HIM SHALL MY FaTHER HONOR." 



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